The ‘pleaching’ of trees is a traditional practice of pruning a tree to form horizontal tiers of lateral growth.
Pleached trees look in keeping with the most traditional English garden, but have found a new niche in more modern gardens where a lack of privacy is so often a problem. They will create a leafy screen which will effectively and inoffensively block off intrusive windows from neighboring properties.
Now even more popular than traditional ‘pleached’ trees are ‘full screens’. In principle they are very similar except that instead of traditional tiers ‘full screens’ have a full framework of foliage creating a much more effective screen – see information brochure below for more details.
For more information about Pleached trees visit the RHS website.
Privacy is a valuable commodity. What is privacy really worth?
Actually, we all invest a substantial amount of money and effort to protect our privacy, whether we realize it or not. We buy curtains or blinds for each room in the house, we might choose the ‘tinted windows’ option for our new car, gates on the drive, and have to remember all sorts of codes and passwords to buy online or pay for things by card. The list goes on, but we shouldn’t forget privacy in the garden…
The garden is an important area in people’s lives and should be a private place of resort, away from prying eyes and the rushing whirlwind of daily life. Too often though, houses are designed and built with scant thought to the privacy of the garden, which suffers from the unwelcome gape and glare of neighboring properties. If your clients garden is in this predicament Pleached Trees are most likely the solution they need. They are unobtrusive, they look attractive, they are easy to keep and are probably the only viable way to increase a boundary height to over 3M without seriously annoying the neighbors or needing planning permission.
Imagine the garden below with a wall or fence as tall as the pleached trees. To our minds this just wouldn’t look right. Instead, the garden now has character, and during summer and autumn an impenetrable leafy screen providing privacy when and where it is most needed.
The comment below was written by the owner of the garden shown in this photo:
‘Five years ago I purchased a property that was part of a Redrow development in a small village. The estate was quite large with over 100 houses being built and although well designed the garden was overlooked. I decided to invest in some pleached trees to create a screen and have been very pleased with them. Not only do they provide an excellent screen, they look good and have limited impact on neighbours unlike other screens or trees. Four years on they are looking really good and also they hold their leaves well in the winter so when they drop each year it is only a short period of time and I am not raking up leaves for months.’
Questions:
What is the best time to plant pleached trees?
The very best time to plant pleached trees is from November through to March. Trees may be available during the Spring and Summer on special request but autumn/winter is by far the best time to plant pleached trees.
How much ongoing maintenance is required?
A light trim once or twice a year should be sufficient once the trees are established.
Does my client need to get planning permission?
No. To quote the RHS website ‘You have the right to plant what you want, where you want within your property.’ Trees and the Law RHS
Can we build a 3m fence or wall instead?
Not without planning permission – which is expensive and will probably be difficult to get. Also, the neighbors may not be too taken with the idea!
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